“There is beauty all around us. Filter out the noise”. These sentiments from an artist oozing intelligence accord with my worldview in 2026. Because there is a huge amount of noise flung at us, much of it inane, but it can also be downright nasty and dangerous, and the space for self can be extremely limited if one allows it to encroach too closely.

Grice is, to this music fan’s mind, a modern titan in art rock, someone making music which speaks to us, as opposed to commercially shouting at us. His latest release, Filter, is out May 29th, and you can get a copy by going to his Bandcamp page at https://grice.bandcamp.com/album/filter or by going along to Burning Shed. It is highly recommended that you do.

Filter is a conceptual album exploring our modern age of (un)accountability and diminishing humanity, the corporate algorithms responsible for the relentless noise, and the fact that the clock is still relentlessly ticking towards possible Armageddon.

There is an impressive roster of guest musicians here. Richard Barbieri with sonics, Steve Jansen on sound textures and treatments, experimental loop guitarist David Torn who features on the epic track Dumah (Silence), avant-garde trumpet player Luca Calabrese and Theo Travis (who it was my pleasure to see recently with The Tangent at Fusion) on duduk. Readers of this review will have little need for expansion on this talent, and it is a testament to Grice that they appear.

So, we start off with the title track, embedded for you below. Filter – purify, distil universal experiences, with open door to humanity. I like B J Cole’s pedal steel guitar in the background on this, and immediately you notice the delicate soundscapes Grice and Barbieri create, and his voice is a thematic expression. Lots going on here, including fascinating orchestration with the trumpet and violins creating a tension alongside the sonics.

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Canticle (Fayre) is a gorgeous short piece takings its cue, I believe, from Paul Simon’s counterpoint to Scarborough Fair, chants alongside some gorgeous guitar work and a strong bass melody and more interesting sonic effects.

Love Me Out follows, and it sounds lush, filling the senses with sound, the mellotron used to atmospheric impact, but at its heart is the most aching vocal you will hear this year, burning with a desire for us to see, to be, to step away from the artificial into the space of human love, and first mention here for Robert Brian on the drums, consistently good throughout, but here especially providing a massive foundational noise. The mechanical sounds at the close initially dominate but fade into silence as if vanquished.

Judgement Day was the first single from the album, and I played it on my radio show recently. It is embedded below. You can hear the bell, but with the love of a good woman, the knowledge from reading, and the desire to be oneself, the death can be averted. Grice performs all the instruments on this extremely catchy number, with some heavy riffing at its core and lightness of spirit as it moves to its conclusion, something which should attract widespread airplay.

Look to the Spring is fascinating, some more pedal steel guitar used as a sound springboard, the acoustic guitar in the forefront, Luca Calabrese providing a lazy, hazy muted trumpet, transporting one to the easy vibe of a jazz club, Brian’s drums perfectly exemplifying this with the double bass of Al Swainger. A sonic delight and a strong contender for instrumental track of 2026 on this website.

Calabrese co-wrote Desert Bloom, and it features the genius of Theo Travis on duduk. It is the first epic-length track on the album, and it has at its foundation both the type of experimentalism which Fripp alongside the likes of Eno and Japan did so much to innovate back in the day, and which Gabriel took as a (“world music”) template in his landmark soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ, and this wonderful piece of music compares very well to that masterpiece. The trumpet takes us on a journey through the arid landscape, the sonics created never less than fascinating, veering from the spartan to the expansive, the duduk shouting out across the ether, the bass rhythmically driving the whole thing forward, some superb percussion from Hossam Ramzy, the voice expressive in its descriptor of the blooms in the harsh landscape. Modern art rock at its very finest.

Time (is there any) is the final track I can embed for you. It has a harder hue to it, the fight against the relentless ticking of that Doomsday Clock, the vocals swinging in a loop, Swainger providing a massive bass melody, with Jansen utilising his magical hands on the hang drum sounds, the effects weaving a mysterious sonic tease.

Dumah (Silence) is an angel who has authority over the wicked dead and is mentioned in Rabbinic literature. Certainly, one feels, 2026 provides ample persons of authority to number his flock. It is over twelve minutes long, and is live, improvised, unfiltered music. The electricity on this simply crackles, a masterpiece of atmospheric music, the sounds produced by Torn staggering in their intensity, Grice (at times distortedly) singing the main theme of the album wrought large, voice as an instrument, singing, chanting, forcing its intensity upon the listener, the drum and guitar loops ever more urgent, pedals booming, Eliza Crew then entering the fray with such a lovely cello solo, mournful in a world that we seem to be moving relentlessly towards, much against our will and better judgement, noises which both scare and delight, with flashes of the most intensely lovely keyboard sounds, the final quarter drifting into an arid landscape of experimental fear and emptiness. Music to be experienced, not merely listened to.

Five Leaf Clover follows – find one, and you are guaranteed financial and spiritual succour, according to folklore. I think the best way I can describe this track is as a sort of experimental Americana piece, Ramzy especially noticeable with his percussion work underpinning some ghostly fretwork and Hammond rising to the top, with Swainger’s bass singing out the luck of the find on his melodic bass moving to the denouement.

Tiny Things is co-written with Barbieri, Calabrese returns to delight us with his hazy, muted trumpet, and he easily shares the limelight with the main protagonists, who provide for a dreamy smorgasbord of sounds drifting beautifully across the imagination, with some enchanting guitar work as the highlight to these ears. Astounding, and so rich.

(f)Lawless is another with Grice providing all the instruments, a dystopian effects portrayal of those algorithms pervading our senses, but, rightly in amongst this, some very pretty guitar notes exemplifying the fact that amidst the noise, there can be light, knowledge, and joy. It is a question of balance. Will the light overcome the darkness? Perhaps, from the screaming closing notes, not.

The penultimate track is State Variable. The vocal performance here is taken to another level, at the top of his range, the love of the good woman, I believe, at its heart, sounds flitting between the ears, the pedal steel guitar so prominent and descriptive, acoustic and electric guitars melodic, the mellotron sparingly used.

We close with Traveller, and it is atmospheric music, cellos, keys, pianos combining with voice to imagine a fate which is hard to face alone, the possibility that all which has enriched us is turned to stone.

Now, looking back on some of the words above, there are written passages which strike me as a bit apocalyptic. Also, with impending retirement from an organisation I have grown to seriously loathe these past few years, it is easy to be cynical and fall into despair.

But here’s the thing about this album. As long as there are artists of Grice’s calibre, making intelligent and thoughtful records about our possible futures, I believe that we shall overcome, prosper, and ensure that future generations can appreciate the inner beauty our species can unleash. I genuinely believe there is hope, and that records such as this personify that philosophy.

This work, as with all others by this talented artist, lives long in the imagination.